Ukraine expected to win Eurovision as Kalush Orchestra make Mariupol appeal on stage Voting has opened in the Eurovision song contest, with the strong favourites Ukraine expected to triumph. They appeared twelfth in the running order of the show, and lead singer Oleh Psiuk shouted: “Please help Ukraine, Mariupol. Help Azovstal right now” from the front of the stage after the band performed. In a video address released before the event, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed the Kalush Orchestra would win. “Europe, vote for Kalush Orchestra. Let’s support our fellow countrymen! Let’s support Ukraine!” he said. Their song, which mixes rap with elements of Ukrainian folk music, was originally written in honour of the group’s mothers. The group have subsequently rededicated it to all matriarchs in Ukraine, as lines such as “I’ll always find my way home, even if all roads are destroyed” found new resonance. The six men who make up the group had to receive special permits to leave Ukraine and travel to Italy during the war. If I was a betting man – I am not – I would still put my money on Ukraine at this point. I think they will end up well placed enough that the public vote will carry them over the line. Austria have just opened some champagne live on air and given the 12 points to the UK though, so … I genuinely cannot remember there being this much technical difficulty with getting the juries on to the show. Is that three so far we lost? If you aren’t watching the show, I’m not being terribly helpful about what the scores are, but UK, Sweden, Spain, Ukraine and Greece are still in contention. My predictions all evening have been terrible, and I am drafting my letter of resignation to the Eurovision Song Contest Live Bloggers Union. I did not expect to be twenty juries in and the UK to be top of the leaderboard. Print this out and save it for your children. The televote could massively move the scoreboard around, but at the moment I would hazard that this will go down to the wire. If Ukraine are placed in the top five, when their televote comes in, we will either know they have an unassailable lead or it will still be possible for the UK, Sweden, Spain or Greece to overhaul them. A nail-biter. I was not expecting that. Let us not get ahead of ourselves, but … Whatever happens from here this is a massive vindication of the change of approach from the BBC in selecting the song and also will silence a lot of those “Europe will never vote for the UK because of politics, we should pull out” voices. The big question at the moment, is have they held back a lot of juries that voted for Ukraine, and will the public vote still be so in favour of Ukraine that it can overhaul the current front-runners? Quite enjoying the randomness of Greece not being able to vote for Cyprus though. I’m essentially in shock at potentially having to write a “UK does well at Eurovision story” and even … no, I can’t type it. TIX from Norway is giving their votes. He competed last year in giant wings. His TIX nickname comes from the fact that he has Tourette syndrome and so would display ticks. He made it part of his identity. RETURNING ARTIST KLAXON. Oooooh technical difficulties with the Azerbaijan jury but then they gave the UK 12 points. Let the conspiracy theories begin! Spain, the UK, Sweden and Greece are setting the early pace in the voting. If you recognise this lady from Ukraine, Kateryna Pavlenko, that is because she is the singer from Go_A who shocked the world last year by wearing the skin of Keith Harris’s Orville puppet in Rotterdam. Go_A should have won last year – HAVE I BANGED ON ABOUT THIS ENOUGH YET? – but did you know they also did a brilliant cover version of Verka Serduchka’s legendary Dancing Lasha Tumbai, well worth three minutes of your time, not least for Kateryna’s absolutely deadpan dancing. Does this count as a returning artist bingo? Why not. As I remind you, they had all the jury scores last night, so if you wanted to engineer an interesting race, you have all the data to hand. I understand that when you get your 30 seconds you want to make the most, but I always feel like these Eurovision jury people have never watched the show. SHUT UP AND GET ON WITH IT ALREADY. The actual Mika … As you will have been able to tell from my commentary – VOTE NETHERLANDS! VOTE SWEDEN! – I have remained scrupulously neutral tonight. My colleague Angela Giuffrida sends this picture backstage of the French press ensemble breaking their sacred vows of being impartial about Eurovision – VOTE NETHERLANDS! VOTE SWEDEN! – while France were on. I am joking, of course, but this was the scene in the press room on Tuesday when Ukraine performed.